The Harvester

Chapter 324: Lurking

"| Did you see that everyone?! |" An irksomely enthusiastic voice sounded from the many speakers scattered across Plateau Zero, matching the screens installed on large buildings.

It showed some kind of robot entertainer speaking into a mic as the video of a mysterious masked girl killing six people in the Arena played behind him. "| Looks like we have a stimulating new face in Zero, folks! Feel free to place your bets for tomorrow's round! |"

Walking down the streets of the Plateau, a certain meek-looking man pushed up his glasses as he glanced at one of the screens. 'Xiorra is doing well,' he thought before continuing his walk with an inherently dignified gait that he refused to let go of even if he had to lay low.

Hans hummed as his eyes flickered from side to side, reading everything about the people down to even the buildings or the pebbles on the ground. Much like Rakna's Crystal Sight, his Cursive Insight would show him not only present but past happenings of a target. Though, it gave much more detailed results than even the Crystal Sage's eyes.

The ever so spiteful author had already read the history of entire city blocks since they had arrived at this Plateau. Sadly, he had yet to find any traces of the Terminal. It appeared that it was being shielded from any form of scrying.

That is why Hans was constrained to rely on his ability to find anything that had a connection to the Terminal's location. Such as a building including something along the lines of 'built over the vestiges of an olden connection to the System' in its history.

Obviously, the day before, with Rakna accompanying him, they hadn't neglected to inspect the most suspicious places such as the spherical structure of the Arena, Bora Quaso's residence, or the busiest criminal and commercial streets.

Hans clicked his tongue. "How tedious. A mere 8th Tier spell would have resolved this issue," he uttered to himself and routinely placed his hand on a building's walls, closing his eyes to focus on the reading he had to do.

In his mind, a book flipped its pages at such a speed that the words formed blurry lines. Regardless, he absorbed everything contained in them. What he was doing couldn't really be called reading, it was more accurate to say that he was absorbing the book itself rather than its content.

As a living incarnation of the concept of Story Making; a literal Tale Book that he was, Hans could learn everything about any text the instant he touched it. As he was close to fully integrating the information and filing it in the back of his mind, a buzzing noise overtook his ears.

He silently gasped and opened his eyes in shock. He staggered away from the wall and calmly got his breath under control. He blinked several times, trying to get rid of the odd disruptions in vision resembling display glitches.

"What… was that?" He muttered to himself. It had felt wrong; extremely so. He pressed his temple as he confirmed that the 'history' he had read was without holes or anomalies. "External stimulus then?" He guessed and furtively looked around. He analyzed every single passerby and narrowed his eyes when he sensed nothing out of place.

He wasn't foolish enough to believe what had just happened was nothing more than coincidence or a lapse in concentration. There was a cause to it, he was sure of it. Someone… or something.

'…I should move,' Hans thought as he walked down the streets. 'Whatever it was… I must ascertain its nature. If I cannot be assured of my safety, I shall move alone. Those two will understand.'

As the author increased his vigilance far past levels that most people couldn't even fathom, he still failed to notice two pairs of yellow eyes peering at him from a distance, too close to each other to possibly be from two different beings. Nor could he see the inhumanly wide grin that followed.

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Rakna groaned audibly as he finally exited the arena. He leaned against the wall of the elevator bringing him back to the solid ground of Plateau Zero, a small card held between his fingers that had been issued to him by Kratos' staff to transfer him the prizes.

Right now, the card displayed 60 000. It was the number of credits killing six opponents had given him. If he had understood right, aside from being used for local transactions of specific kinds, each credit was also about a thousand Talys worth if converted; which was no paltry sum.

"Why do you keep staring at your card?" A voice shook him out of his brooding, and he glanced to his right where a curious Rita was leaning in. The girl had followed him out of the Arena like a lost puppy.

He sent her a deadpan look and pocketed the card. "For no reason. I was just thinking how funny it was to earn this much money from just eviscerating a few pigs."

Rita almost face-faulted and awkwardly took a step back with a stiff smile. '…did you really need to use that terminology?' She asked internally but didn't dare to voice it out loud; a thought that was shared by everyone currently accompanying them in the elevator.

Rakna sighed internally and looked at the Arena from the corner of his eyes. Before leaving, he had considered using either Astral Projection or Antanasia to do a reconnaissance of that room behind glass that seemed to be observing him. But he gave up on the idea since both had risks in the current situation.

Using the Mirror World would make him disappear; the word 'suspicious' doesn't cut it to describe how reckless that would be. As for his soul projection, he was confident to have enough control to avoid detection even from others who had a grasp of soul power. But Bora's bodyguards? There was a high chance they would notice.

'It's best I wait… perhaps I can use Antanasia tonight and tear that place apart. It's not like I need to worry about damage or loudness in one of Enthymio's layers,' he thought.

This strategy would at least give him a clear idea of the Arena's layout. And if push comes to shove, he could also use the same method to find the Terminal if Hans couldn't. Of course, that would be hazardous at best and without even counting the time limits he would have due to the dimensional damage, he couldn't know if System infrastructure was something that had a real presence in the Mirror World.

Antanasia only 'reflected' the real world, after all. It didn't imitate it down to the last detail and some things could either be twisted or omitted in their entirety.

At the end of the day, Rakna settled for a tamer strategy, to begin with. Which happened to involve a little stick-bug-like robot he was currently playing around with inside his jacket's pocket. It was a miniature automaton made from his body's Prima Materia.

Powered by Eion, programmed by Eye of Symphony, and built almost as small as flies, these things could act as both trackers and listening devices.

He had spread nearly a hundred of them while he had been bored watching the fights. He ordered the Eion bugs to crawl into the surviving participants' clothes, except those he feared would be able to notice.

While lost in his thoughts, the elevator reached the bottom and he pushed himself away from the wall with a huff. Before exiting the elevator cage, he glanced back. "See you tomorrow and go back safely," he said nonchalantly to Rita who had awkwardly been standing next to him in silence.

The young girl blinked in surprise before smiling faintly. "Thank you. You too."

Rakna left it at that and quickly blended in with the crowd, heading back to the hotel.

"{Did you take a liking to that girl?}" Fray asked teasingly and he snorted.

'At the very least, she was a nice presence to have amidst the stench,' the disguised therian spat out irritatingly. 'I never knew the True Smell of The Wolf God could be so maddening until today. If it was not for keeping a tab on potential animosity, I would have cut off my sense of smell entirely.'

Fray's wry laugh echoed in his head in response.

'But, aside from that, I have a hunch,' he added. 'That girl could help me accelerate our schedule. Call it my instinct, if you will.'

"{But of course. Let me guess, do you wish to use her as bait of some sort?}"

'We'll have to wait and see,' Rakna ended the topic and walked into an alleyway. Once he was sure no one could see him, he whispered, "[Neglect My Reality, Enkata.]" Calling upon the second layer of Enthymio, his body crumbled into a shapeless cloud of shadows which quickly merged with the darkness.

A short moment later, the reason he had done so stepped into the alleyway; a group of agents sent to tail him. They looked around in confusion and he sneered at them from the depths of shadows before whisking himself away like a breeze of wind.

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On another side of the city, Bora Quaso exited a private elevator with a cackle, his bodyguards and servants following after him. "This was a very entertaining first day. That woman made me even more interested than before," he said excitingly. "She is strong. It'll be even more satisfying."

As the fat man fantasized out loud, from a building above his head, a silhouette hidden by shadows watched him. Nyx narrowed her eyes as she focused on a specific bodyguard, if he even was one, that wasn't there yesterday.

This odd man wearing gentlemen-man-like clothes, including a top hat, was releasing a presence that felt stronger than anyone else around him. Or to be exact, the danger she could feel from him was exponentially higher. Not to mention that his noticeable body was not human.

She eavesdropped on Bora Quaso's ramblings through her shadows with a disgusted expression. Now, at least, she knew Rakna had made the desired impression on the man, its foulness aside.

As she was thinking that, she shivered and retracted her shadows. She hid deeper than before as she nervously saw the opaque glasses of the unknown man turn toward her general location. Red dots glowed through them as he gazed at her hiding spot before slowly looking away, departing with the rest of Bora's group toward the latter's quarters.

Nyx let out the breath she was holding and quietly decided to leave. Tailing Bora with that man in range was too risky.